Middlesbrough players and manager Aitor Karanka celebrate after earning promotion to the Premier League. Will this be your club this season?
Photograph: Greig Cowie/BPI/Rex/Shutterstock

The Championship

Aston Villa

Let’s not get too ambitious – it looks like Roberto Di Matteo will have pretty much the same squad of players that took us down last season. However, in Di Matteo and Steve Clarke we have two coaches who will get more out of the squad than previous ones. And we have a new owner who is thinking big and looking long term, which makes a change. I’d be pleased with a late surge to the play-offs and building momentum for next season. But as long as we don’t suffer a double relegation, we’ll be OK. RKOW85

I think a successful season would be to avoid relegation. Many of our players have never played at Championship level.At the time of writing only two have - Adam Hammill and Lewin Nyatanga. I’m not counting young right back James Bree who made a 20 minute substitute appearance the last time we were in the second tier.

I firmly believe we could surprise a few teams this season. In the main I think we’ve recruited well in the summer, and we have kept together the nucleus of the squad that got us promoted. Our transfer policy of recruiting young, hungry players served us well last season - in the end! Although we are running the risk of losing skipper Conor Hourihane, and last season’s top scorer Sam Winnall for nothing in the summer, if their performances earn them a crack with a bigger club whilst keeping us in the Championship then that would constitute a good season. Chris Lodge

Our hope is to reach the play-offs this season, or at least do better than consecutive 10th-place finishes from the last two seasons. Gary Rowett is the reason we can dream. Despite financial limitations, Rowett has found players capable of fitting his style and we have become very organised over the last 20 months or so. If we are to surprise people and break the top six, competition at left-back and another quality forward are a necessity. I just hope finances don’t hold us back too much as the season looms closer. Ryan Deeney

After the departure of Paul Lambert and the underwhelming appointment of Owen Coyle, my hopes for the season aren’t high. Though Danny Graham has bagged a few in pre-season, he is a huge downgrade from Jordan Rhodes and his goals were only enough to keep us safely in mid-table. With Grant Hanley now at Newcastle, I fear we’re in for a difficult season of fighting to stay in the Championship. Todd Baker

What I want as a fan will be familiar across the lower leagues: effort, application, fortitude and fight. I want to see exciting new signings, such as Romaine Sawyers from Walsall, really prove themselves in the Championship, while our new youth players get good experience and add to the squad. Brentford have enjoyed two seasons of achievement, despite some boat-rocking changes to management and playing staff. Expectations are still high and we all want consistency. I’m looking forward to St James’ Park and hope the Bees can beat Newcastle for the first time since 1948. James Hardcastle

Brighton

After a fantastic season last year, where we came so close to promotion to the promised land, the crippling pessimism has returned. Minds and bodies were exhausted last year, for both fans and players alike. Carrying some momentum into the new season will be difficult. Fortunately we have one of the best English managers in the country and have kept our midfield dynamos, Dale Stephens and Beram Kayal. Glenn Murray’s return will provide some guile and experience up front. Last year we were under the radar and expectations were low. I’m worried the added pressure of those successes will weigh heavy on our shoulders. My only hope for this season is that I’m proved wrong. Joe Simmons

I’m hoping for a play-off push but more realistically a top-10 finish would be considered an achievement after last year. Any top-half finish will depend on keeping striker Jonathan Kodjia and ensuring he gets the right service, while trying to tighten an often leaky defence and open midfield.

The signing of Hordur Magnusson may provide some much needed assistance to Aden Flint and, along with the loan return of Celtic’s Adam Matthews, we look slightly better than last year with a return to four at the back. Gary O’Neill has arrived to provide some experience in midfield and hopefully Lee Tomlin will be wandering around like a 2016 Gazza, as City fans hope for more big things from him. If it all comes together, we could be half decent. If it doesn’t, then we’ll be floundering at the bottom again. Adrian Mole

Jonathan Kodjia will hope for another successful season in front of goal. Photograph: Thomson/JMP/Rex/Shutterstock

Whatever happens this season it sure beats kicking off the season away at Paget Rangers

Miles Dosher - Burton Albion

Burton Albion

As summer has progressed, a sense of disbelief has given way to guarded excitement. For the Brewers to be competing at Championship level is beyond anything I ever thought was possible. What appears to be astute signings have been made and our previous record fee paid of £20,000 has been broken twice in almost as many days. Manager Nigel Clough and chairman Ben Robinson are well known and well liked in the town, with many years of service under their belts. We are in the best possible hands to go about tackling the next nine months in the correct way.

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Clough and Robinson are no mugs and have a very strong pragmatic streak. Allied to this is a determination not to be shown up and a quiet belief that we can finish outside of the relegation places. Most Albion fans are approaching the season with realism and a desire to enjoy the ride whatever happens. I just hope this mood prevails if we find ourselves on a long winless run. All will be revealed over the next 46 games and, whatever happens, it sure beats kicking off the season away at Paget Rangers. Miles Dosher

I’d like to see us show as much passion as Wales did in the Euros. Having been a season ticket holder for as long as I can remember, I’ve been to a couple of pre-season games. We are playing a Coleman-esque 3-5-2 this season. Freddie Woolf

Derby County

The Rams have found new and innovative ways of avoiding promotion for three seasons running now, with the manager arguably culpable on each occasion. Surely now, with a hard nut like Nigel Pearson in charge and old-time favourite Chris Powell there as well, a squad (over)stocked with talent has enough to make it. Will Hughes will surely be in the Premier League one way or the other by 2017-18, and if Pearson can make the most of Darren Bent, Chris Martin and Tom Ince, there’s goals to be had. Having bizarrely claimed last season that promotion wasn’t a priority, it’s surely the only one for the club this time. David Hopkins

Derby County manager Nigel Pearson is all smiles during training along with Bradley Johnson and Johnny Russell. Photograph: Andy Clarke/Rex/Shutterstock

Fulham

I’m positive about manager Slavisa Jokanovic. With a full pre-season under his belt, there is more cause for optimism than this time last year. With a couple more signings, a tilt at a play-off spot is not beyond us. Tom

Huddersfield Town

It’s a season of optimism after several campaigns as a selling club who bolstered the ranks with emergency loan players. The change in emergency loan rules, and head coach David Wagner’s knowledge of the German market, has meant we have our most cosmopolitan looking squad ever. Heavily sourced from the youth teams and Bundesliga 2 and 3, we have a lot of players who are unknowns but that is better than the journeymen we’ve had to scrape around for in the bargain bin at the end of previous window.

We could struggle as the players have to get used to each other and to the new gegenpressing system, or we could hit the ground running and actually make a challenge of the season. The chairman has also subsidised 15,000 season tickets so we’re getting a season of football for £179. He’s also invested around £500,000 on our training facilities. For one of the smaller teams in the division, this is to be applauded. I hope his investment is rewarded with at least a stab at glory. Andy

Huddersfield Town manager David Wagner poses for pictures before the club’s pre-season friendly against Liverpool. Photograph: JMP/Rex/Shutterstock

Ipswich Town

I have very small hopes for the club this season. Having been quite optimistic pre-season the previous two years, a combination of dull football, very little money being spent and some very able teams around us mean I think we’ll finish mid-table at best. I like Mick McCarthy and don’t reckon we’ll get any better, but by God the football is dire sometimes and some of the results last year were awful.

I’m more interested in seeing how the two big clubs in Aston Villa and Newcastle do. I’m not looking forward to playing the little club which came down last year either – recent “Old Farm” derby results have been disastrous. In our favour we have stability, Mick gets them working for each other and we certainly know this league. We’ve been in it for 15 years! Carl

Leeds United

For us it’s always been a case of fighting a battle against ourselves as much as any of the other teams in the league. But with Garry Monk at the helm and seemingly signing players he rates rather than a bunch of anonymous Italian cast-offs courtesy of our chairman, we might just have a chance of pulling something off this season. Maybe a good bash at reaching the play-offs? If Cellino backs off and lets Monk do his job, it’s there for the taking. Jamie Saunders

When us Geordies talk about a 'Rafalution' we don’t just mean in terms of results

Graeme Hall - Newcastle United

Nothing short of promotion, preferably as Championship winners, will do. With Rafa Benítez managing a squad that would never have gone down last season had they been managed properly, plus some excellent new signings, there can be no excuses. When us Geordies talk about a “Rafalution” we don’t just mean in terms of results. Since his appointment, Benítez has deconstructed the workings of a club that was rotten to the core. The old hierarchy has been swept away and replaced with a professional structure and back room staff.

The club is reconnecting with the local community and there’s even talk of the hated Wonga sponsorhip deal being discontinued. Above all we seem like a real football club again, and the fans have been allowed to dream a little. And isn’t that what football is all about? I’ll be holding my breath at the first sniff of a Premier League managerial vacancy though. Graeme Hall

Anything less than promotion will be a failure. This is a tall but possible task. First and foremost we have Alex Neil - a confident, fiery and fast learning young manager. He had the maturity to recognise his own mistakes over the course of last season, and more importantly, has already guided both us to promotion. He, as well as most of our players, have been here and done this before. We also have a strong Championship squad.

The quality of the league improves year on year, but our midfield comprising of Robbie Brady, Alexander Tettey, Jonny Howson and the evergreen Wes Hoolahan will remain the envy of Neil’s peers. In addition to our personnel, we have excellent fans who will continue to fill Carrow Road every game, even if a few will go into meltdown if we start poorly. Besides, there’s always that third kit to cheer us up. Dan Scales

Nottingham Forest

Am I allowed to say a year of sanity? Supporting Forest is never an easy thing and this promising set-up could well be another false dawn. We have a Portuguese director of football, a French head coach and have made some interesting signings. On the other hand we don’t have a certificate to allow fans to go and watch games at the City Ground.

If Britt Assombalonga can stay fit, he can be the difference between mid-table mediocrity and a play-off push. Henri Lansbury showed glimpses of why he is as good as anyone in the league and Oliver Burke offers fans genuine excitement with his raw pace and power. In Matt Mills and Michael Mancienne we have two of the best centre-backs in the league. Regardless of the performances on the pitch, I worry that off-field antics will be the main source of focus this season. Charlie Hannibal

QPR

This is Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink’s first summer window so he’s brought in players he wants who will hopefully fit how he wants to play. I like that we’re now buying young players with potential instead of old has-beens. I just want us to have a normal season for a change and not sack a manager.

I’d be happy with a mid-table finish and allow the team to grow together. As a QPR fan seeing a team grow over a few years is not something we’re used to. Right now we just need to buy a striker who can get at least 15 goals a season and then we’ll do alright. Dean

Reading

This season relies heavily on the hugely unreliable Jaap Staam. Although a class player, many have questioned his CV as a manager. It appears he moved early in the transfer market to get some quality players such as Dutch defensive midfielder Joey van den Berg. Promotion is what I’m hoping for, but mid-table wouldn’t be too suprising. Ewan Miller

Is Jaap Stam the right man for the Reading? Photograph: Stephenson/JMP/Rex/Shutterstock

Sheffield Wednesday

Promotion, pure and simple. It was Thai seafood magnate Dejphon Chansiri’s wish to gain promotion during our 150th anniversary campaign when he took over, and we look well placed to launch our bid. Carolos Carvalhal’s first full season in charge may have ended with a disappointing but deserved play-off final defeat, but we have an attractive style of play and the players are accustomed to their roles.

The Championship is a marathon of a league and the faster you build momentum the better chance you have. Defensive cover is an issue with captain and centre-back Glenn Loovens missing the start of the season. If we add a fast winger to our line-up, we can hopefully sit back and wait for new signing Steven Fletcher to light up the Football League with Gary Hooper, Fernando Forestieri and Barry Bannan playing supporting roles. Tom Johnson

A diligent but limited midfield is unlikely to match the brilliance shown by Jimmy Bullard in our last promotion season in the Championship. We will need Nick Powell to stop being promising and start being effective, something he failed to do on his loan spell at the club two seasons ago. Alan Willis

Wolves

New Chinese owners and big new money means fellow fans are celebrating Wolves being fired into the stratosphere and that we’ll be winning the Champions League in a couple of seasons. Experience shows that things are never that simple. Rich foreign owners aside, Wolves’ endless capacity of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory means I’m not celebrating yet.

However, we are better off then we were a week ago, when we were in limbo and looking like possible relegation candidates. Play-offs have to be the minimum expectation and, if the Jorge Mendes links mean top players from Benfica really do start arriving at Molineux, then maybe the sky really is the limit. James Allen

New Wolves club director Jeff Shi greets a fan during a pre-season friendly match at Molineux. Photograph: Clint Hughes/PA

League One

AFC Wimbledon

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Having won promotion in May via the play-offs, a comfortable mid-table position would be a good achievement and entirely plausible. We’ve kept the majority of the team together and strengthened in a couple of positions. During the second half of last season the team knew their jobs and how to play together, and this will likely see us finish above clubs that are a bit more in disarray on the pitch.

For off-pitch hopes, it would be great if London Mayor Sadiq Khan waved through the plan for the new stadium at Plough Lane. That would give us all something to cheer about and set us up for the next thirty years or so. Adam Russell

Following a season of appalling underachievement, with a highly paid squad letting both themselves and the fans down, we were relegated with a tarnished silver lining being the cancellation of our staggering debts and a takeover, which may or may not prove to be a turning point. Anything less than a top-six finish would be disastrous for the club and this could be another long, hard season. The club needs to divest itself of some of our players who are still on Premier League-level contracts and bring in experienced heads who are prepared to graft for each other. Bijou Bob

A third successive promotion may be too much to ask for, but consolidating would be good. We have re-signed our talismanic striker Matty Taylor and the new stadium now looks likely to be delivered, so I’m feeling good that my beloved Ragbag Rovers may finally step out of the shadows and begin to fulfill the potential that the more enlightened side of Bristol knows has always been there. Certainly with our wealthy new owners, and a chairman who seems to fully understand the ethos of this great family club, the future looks brighter than ever before.

Mid-table would do, but pushing for a play-off place could be achievable. If however Darryl Clarke manages to secure yet another promotion, his fifth in six seasons as a manager, we might have a real problem hanging onto him. These are exciting times for Gasheads and there is an incredible buzz about the place. Hopefully next May we will be carrying our chairman shoulder-high down the Gloucester Road again and waving at Bristol City as they pass us on their way down. Martin

Will Bristol Rovers manager Darrell Clarke inspire his team to a third straight promotion? Photograph: Stephenson/JMP/Rex/Shutterstock

Charlton Athletic

For the first time since Roland Duchatelet took over the club, he has installed a manager with experience at the level he is working! Russell Slade may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but he has a CV that extends beyond the Belgian second tier and the Israeli leagues, so that’s good enough for me.

The anguish of losing our most talented players, including wantaway Jordan Cousins, thunderclap Johann Berg Gudmundsson and goalkeeper Nick Pope, means it will be a fight. But in signings such as Nicky Ajose, Lee Novak and Ricky Holmes we are at least buying players who have cut their teeth on wet Wednesdays in Cheltenham. Here’s hoping for a play-off place at worst and a complete implosion of our corporate overlords at the best. Crezj Sloleybones

Nicky Ajose is one of the new faces at Charlton Athletic this season. Photograph: TGSPhoto/Rex/Shutterstock

Coventry City

Every summer we have an expectation that City can do something different in the upcoming season, only to regularly be let down at some point. This season most of us don’t even hold that hope. With 11 of the squad released at the end of the season, it was not the confident start to the summer we were hoping for. Top scorer Adam Armstrong has gone back to Newcastle and, with their relegation, is unlikely to return. But the real loss has been in the middle of the park, with John Fleck and Romain Vincelot both departing.

Manager Tony Mowbray has said this is a rebuilding campaign and he is looking to bring in players that will stay with the club rather than the loans we have relied on for the last few years. He has been put in a difficult situation by the ongoing farce that is the ownership of the club.

The last time we saw a pre-season with so many departures we were relegated from the Championship. This season could be more similar to that than we would wish. The last time Coventry finished in the top six in any division was in 1970. Surely that run has to end at some point? The only problem is, I don’t see it coming this year. Ian Henderson

Gillingham

Last season ended with a whimper. The lowest league position we were in all season was ninth. It was only for one day, but it happened to be the final day. One of our star players, John Egan, subsequently left for pastures new with another, Bradley Dack, expected to follow suit before the end of August. Our pre-season programme has also been something of a disaster, having been beaten 2-0 by both Barnet and Leyton Orient, and losing key player Aaron Morris and new signing Lee Martin to long-term injuries.

That being said, it’s not all doom and gloom. The acquisitions of Billy Knott and Scott Wagstaff in particular appear both shrewd and exciting. A return to the free-flowing football of the opening months of last season would not go amiss. Last season felt like our first real chance of a return to the Championship since 2005. Another stab this year seems unlikely and we will probably be flirting with the other end of the table. My hope is to finish at the top of top half, my expectation is to finish at the top of the bottom half. Chris Ray

Millwall

Promotion to the Championship. Anything else could see us getting stuck in League One for years, almost making it out yet falling at the last hurdle. A good start to the season as well as consistency over time and to keep Neil “Bomber” Harris working for us. Elliot

MK Dons

As they’re versed in the rigours of League One, the idealist in me would plug for an instant return to the Championship via automatic promotion. But as they were so woeful during the latter stages of last season, I’d settle for a top-six finish and a chance for manager Karl Robinson to rebuild his team’s confidence and potency in front of goal. Sparky TKO

Nicky Maynard and the MK Dons struggled in the Championship last season. Photograph: Ben Hoskins/Getty Images

Oldham Athletic

I’m not too optimistic about our chances this season. Having said that, stability may be the key and holding on to a decent if unspectacular group of players may prove to be key. We’ve put together a good run before and hopefully we can replicate it. My heart will say a sneaky play-off place, but in fairness I will take anything above 20th again. I don’t fear relegation too much due to our great stickability to this division. Patrick McKiernan

Oxford United

I simply hope Michael Appleton stays as the manager and that the departure of Kemar Roofe and other key players is adequately addressed. Will they make the Championship? That is a pipe dream, but the hope is for a play-off spot. Just as long as we avoid relegation Garrett

With a small club comes low expectations, but in the back of your mind lies a dream of triumphant glory. With the young talent at the club, I feel reasonably optimistic that battles will be won and a young talisman will be produced to lead the team to honour and glory amongst a sea of blue and white. Elfin Lovely

I just don’t see where the revenue is going to come from as sponsors are hard to come by in Burslem

Tom Hughes - Port Vale fan

Port Vale

I hope that the recent clear-out of our current squad was motivated by improving on a season which grew stronger towards the end, rather than by a chairman who has mainly been motivated by cutting the budget. Season ticket sales have been poor and I don’t see where the revenue is going to come from as sponsors are hard to come by in Burslem. Yet this gamble on a foreign legion could still pay off, if these guys from some major club reserve teams are gems simply waiting for that chance.

Paulo Tavares, the 30-year-old midfielder, looks a great signing given his long history in the top Portuguese league. Anton Forester has bags of higher level experience and still looks sharp, while some very good players from last season in Ben Purkiss, Jak Alnwick and Remie Streete have been retained. If player of the last season Anthony Grant fails with his transfer request it could be a very good season indeed. We need another striker with a proven rate of return, so perhaps if Nathan Tyson or Tom Pope returns, we have every chance of improving on last term. Tom Hughes